The Frozen Foot Festival

and Pinkbike Trophy

Russ Day here from Pinkbike.com.

I managed to sort through some old photo files and I came across the picture of Ben hoisting the winning trophy from the 2nd annual Frozen Foot Festival.

The event was supposed to be a mountain bike race and festival that we held every winter on the snowy slopes of a ski hill near Calgary Alberta. We had professional riders invited from all over North America and the venue had always been well attended, it was even supposed to be filmed for television that year. Ben was involved in the event's organization with us (if I'm not mistaken I think he flew in from New York after the Christmas holidays to be there). In the days before the 2002 Frozen Foot Festival was due to start however, an unusual cold front swept in and lowered the daytime temperature to -30c without wind chill. Those who were driving to the event were forced to spend several nights waiting out the weather and the subsequent road closures, in the end we were forced to cancel the Frozen Foot Festival since watching, never mind competing, would have been impossible.

Disappointed, we decided to make the best of the foul weather and find a way to award the Frozen Foot Festival trophy that had been fabricated at a friend's steel shop in Calgary. One of our friends suggested go-cart racing, and unbeknownst to the rest of us, Ben was quite skilled at the task. After racing all afternoon against eight of us, Ben wound up winning the race and taking home the trophy.

Russ Day
Chiliwack, BC, Canada

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